


Anonymous Authors And Their Fans

by TheWalrusAndTheCarpenter



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, F/M, Levi is an author, M/M, THIS WORK IS UNFINISHED AND WON'T BE FINISHED SORRY, aaah not too good at tagging
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-28
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2017-12-30 18:47:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalrusAndTheCarpenter/pseuds/TheWalrusAndTheCarpenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Levi is the author of the best selling book series based in an alternate universe where the Earth is plagued by huge beasts known as titans. However, no one is aware that the short man wrote the books other than a select few. Eren is a major fan of his work. Why is it that they keep meeting up and why does Levi want to incorporate the brunette in his book so badly. Will Levi even tell Eren that he's the writer that Eren adores so much?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crowded Halls

Levi didn’t even know what he was doing. He sat in the crowded hall watching at people of various ages walked past in costume. The fact their costumes were based on his book series should make him happy but in all honesty he felt embarrassed for them. Who in their right mind would dress up as a fictional character and walk around like that. It was times like this that Levi thanked that he had written the book under a pen name and kept himself anonymous, because otherwise he would currently be flooded by random strangers shoving pens in his face asking him to sign things. Hanji had heard about the mentions of the gathering and informed Levi, telling him that it would be a good experience for him. If she had left it at that, then Levi wouldn’t be here but no, Hanji _had_ to go and nag him 24/7 for a week.

Giving a sigh the dark haired author looked up looking out over the mass of people (mainly teenagers and young adults). As much as he hated to admit it but some of the costumes that they were dressed up in were brilliant considering they had only got vague descriptions to go from. However there were a few that weren’t so great and, to be honest, were fairly incorrect, but at least they had tried. Even so, why waste time creating something for such a terrible book anyway. Levi had only started writing because it helped to put his nightmares down on paper, but then like a bad habit, he couldn’t stop once he had started. He didn’t really enjoy it but he didn’t hate it either. Besides, he got money from it so who really gives a shit.

Just as he was gathering his coat to leave he was stopped by someone dressing up as one of the ‘bad guys’ in his novel, the Titans. He seemed to have gotten all of the details down to a T, including the hair, ears and face.

“Why do you keep looking at us like we’ve done something wrong?” The stranger spat out.

Taken slightly aback, Levi raised a thin eyebrow. “Pardon?”

“You’ve spent the past hour looking at us all as if we’re idiots,”

“Is that so?”

“Y-Yeah! We’re just having fun you don’t need to keep glaring at us, we’re not hurting anyone! It’s a good book!” The man, most likely in his late teens, early twenties, said.

“You think it’s a good book? Well you need a better taste in novels then…” Levi faded off almost as if silently asking for his name.

“Eren Jaeger,”

“Eren. Well if you have nothing else to say I’ll be leaving.”

Pulling his coat tightly around him, Levi walked away from Eren who was obviously fuming. He let a small smirk grace his lips, winding people up never ceased to amuse him. However Eren’s interpretation of the Titan was incredibly creative and Levi was actually rather fond of it.

As he walked away from the crowd of people Levi felt his phone vibrate. Without even checking it he knew who it could be, it was either Hanji or Erwin, because no one else had his phone number.

To Levi : From Erwin  
  
 _Heard from the publisher that they’re going to start printing and shipping tomorrow, should be in shops within the next few days at quickest._

Oh hallelujah. The longest part about the whole thing is getting it published; writing never took him more than three quarters of a year, depending on his inspiration and willpower. It also depended on whether he could be bothered to read over it and fix plot holes and spellings.

To Erwin : To Levi  
  
 _About fucking time._

It was dark by the time Levi returned to his apartment. Although it wasn’t particularly small, it felt very crowded with the amount of piles of paper he had lying around. At least the piles were organised and neat, because otherwise Levi would never be able to find anything. There was one incident during the last summer where it had been extremely hot so he had opened the window, then a forceful gust of wind blew in scattering all of the papers everywhere. That caused the author to nearly break down and it eventually took him eight endless hours to re-organise them.

Shutting the door behind him, he placed his keys in the green ceramic bowl beside the entrance. His first plan of action was to make some tea as he practically ran on the drink. While allowing the kettle to boil, Levi thought over the information he’d gotten from today.

It was obvious from the amount of people dressing up, or cosplaying as Hanji insisted it was called, that more people preferred the main characters over the minor ones, although that was obviously going to happen. Levi had put little parts of him in all of the major characters, maybe that’s why he disliked them so much, know knows.

Whistling, the kettle announced that the water was boiling. Splashes of hot water jumped from the cup as he poured it and mixed it with the milk, sugar and teabag. Levi ignored the heat of the cup and swallowed the scalding liquid. He contemplated making something to eat while he was already in the kitchenette but in all honesty he couldn’t be bothered, plus he wasn’t even sure if he had anything in the fridge. He was only half way through his tea and he was already fed up of it. So he placed his cup in the sink and stalked off towards his bedroom.

Out of all of the rooms in his apartment, the bedroom was Levi’s favourite. It had nice pale walls, nothing too vibrant. The wardrobe and bed weren’t stupidly small or incredibly large. Also, it had a balcony. The balcony didn’t have a great view but it was a balcony all the same and Levi adored it. It seemed quite silly adoring something as pathetic as a balcony with a shitty view but that didn’t stop him loving it.

Levi peeled off his clothes from that day, folding them neatly and placing them on top of the dresser. He flopped onto the bed and almost instantly his eyes felt weighted and dry. Once he had closed them he didn’t want to open them again.

Although he was quick to fall asleep, he was quick to wake as well. The dark haired man enjoyed sleeping as it made him considerably less tired and increased his patience; however what he didn’t appreciate was the nightmares that plagued his dreams. Coincidentally, he got most of his ideas for his novel from his night terrors, but that didn’t make them any less bad. He wasn’t even sure if he could call them night terrors anymore as they ceased terrifying him, if anything they were a more of an inconvenience than anything else. Saying that, it still didn’t stop him waking up from each dream drenched in a cold sweat and the covers of his bed on the floor, having been knocked off by what Levi assumed was his kicking and thrashing. It was now that Levi was thankful that he never shouted out while he was dreaming otherwise he would have probably gotten into quite a few arguments with his neighbours.

Tonight’s nightmare was very similar to one Levi had gotten once he had actually started writing. Levi had stood, clad in white shirt and jeans, with a leather harness weaving around his body. In each hand was a sharp blade, glistening with a scarlet liquid. Scattered around him were large steaming bodies, the size of double decker buses, that resembled humans in features but it was obvious they were incredibly different. As more approached Levi pulled at a trigger causing two grapple hook like devises to be propelled forward taking Levi with them. Using this device the author had later named 3D Maneuver Gear, he sliced deep into the back of the giant’s neck causing it to cry out, fall to the ground and steam and all of its flesh seemed to evaporate until it left a mass of unproportionately light bones.

The first time Levi had had this dream it had stopped there but this time it continued. Unlike the first time, Levi wasn’t fighting alone; there was someone else with him, but for the life of him Levi couldn’t remember who it was. All he remembered was he kept calling the person ‘Jaeger’. He’d heard of that name before but he couldn’t put his finger on _where_ he’d heard it. Maybe he’d made it up?

Giving a sigh Levi slumped back down into his bed, attempting to get back to sleep.

_Who the fuck is Jaeger? Either way it’s too fucking early to be thinking about shit like that._


	2. Cleaning At Work

Loud beeping erupted from Levi’s phone waking him up from his light slumber. But when he opened his eyes he noticed something was a little bit off, he wasn’t actually in his bed anymore, or his bedroom for that matter, he was lying on the germ covered kitchen floor. He must have walked around in his sleep; it wasn’t uncommon for him to do this, although usually he never left his bedroom, or as far as he knew. As fast as was humanly possible Levi leapt from the ground. Hastily made his way over to his coat where his phone still was from the previous day.

Although he kept his apartment impeccably tidy, he still felt as if the germs from the floor were covering him and he hated it. Levi felt disgustingly dirty and gross. After turning the blaring alarm off on his phone, he made his way to the shower.

It felt good to be able to wash all of the dirt and sweat off of his body. While he was in the shower he also made a mental note to get his hair cut, when it was wet and heavy it fell over his eyes making it hard to see so it was obvious to him that it was getting too long. Ever since he was a child he did everything possible to make things neat, tidy and orderly. Maybe it was because Levi liked it that was or maybe it was because as a child growing up he never stayed anywhere that was clean. But either way something had resulted in the man having quite the obsessive compulsive disorder when it came to cleaning.

Once all of the hot water had ran out Levi got out, only to go off and grab some cleaning equipment. If he was here he might as well do some cleaning; besides he was fairly sure he saw a patch of limescale congregating on the shower head, and that bothered him. It took him little under a quarter of an hour to clean the shower head and shower enough that he was happy with it. Even though he was happy with it he couldn’t just ignore the fact he was now fifteen minutes late on getting ready for work.

When he eventually arrived at work he was ten minutes late and extremely hungry and therefore cranky. He had to skip breakfast in order to arrive on time and that would have been fine, Levi _would_ have arrived on time. But no, there _had_ to be traffic jams and road works. Lucky for him though, Levi and his boss got on and she was fine with him being slightly late as it rarely happened. His boss was a small, pretty woman called Petra Ral. She was extremely polite and Levi genuinely enjoyed talking to her.

“Levi, I’ve got to go and pick up some more duct tape and plastic bags from the store,” Petra explained as she fastened the buttons on her fitted green coat. “You’ll be fine for a half hour or so without me right? Do you want anything while I’m gone?”

Adjusting his name tag on his light green polo shirt, that although uncomfortable was uniform, Levi considered if he did actually need anything.

“I’ll be fine Petra. Thank you for offering but I’ve got to go and get a load of stuff tonight because I’ve basically ran out of everything. I fucking swear sell by dates used to last longer.”

With a bright smile Petra nodded and left, the bell above the door rang out as she opened it.

The bookshop he worked in was owned by Petra’s father but recently he’d let Petra do more and more when it came to running it. He was probably testing her to see if she was ready to take over the store soon.

Dark eyes scanned the shop from behind the counter. It was empty and quiet. Even though there weren’t any major book releases lately there was still usually _someone_ in the shop. Maybe it was because it was Sunday? Who knows.

“This place is fucking filthy,” Muttered Levi as he ran a finger along the dust covered counter. The place could do with a massive clean-up.

Walking into the back room Levi quickly located the cleaning products he had bought in a few weeks ago in case such an occasion arose.

Mentally, he created a list of how he was going to do things. First he was going to rub down the counter with some of those lemon scented cleaning wipes. He then decided it would be best to then do some dusting and if need be, mop the floor but with that he would have to be careful as he would have to have it dry before 1pm because that’s when people go out on their lunch break.

Levi was only halfway through dusting the bookshelves with the Swiffer (in his opinion Swiffers were the lord of all dusters as they actually picked up the dust instead of just shoving it around) when Armin walked in with Petra.

Armin Arlet was a nice kid. He was smart and quiet, so whenever he did say something it wasn’t completely idiotic. There was only thing about Armin that bothered Levi and that was his hair. Armin had long blond hair that reached just below his chin; Levi thought it made him look like a man-child rather than a sophisticated college student in his early twenties.  

“I leave you for half an hour and you’ve already started cleaning. I should leave you alone more often Levi, the place looks great!” Petra exclaimed as she placed the plastic bags and duct tape on the counter.

“It honestly does,” Armin decided to voice as he attached his name tag to his polo shirt, identical to Levi’s. “Although surely you can’t clean the entire shop by yourself, I’ll help you if you want,”

For a moment Levi stood considering his offer. The cleaning would be done quicker but it also may not be done to his standards. Armin was a good kid though; he wouldn’t be able to fuck up something so basic.

“Alright Arlet, you continue dusting and I’ll mop.”

Shoving the Swiffer into Armin’s hands Levi walked off to retrieve a bucket of water and mop from the back. Some could argue that the wooden floor could just be wiped over with a dustpan and brush but that never got into all of the nooks and crannies like soapy water did.

While on his mopping journey Levi made sure to clean the area by the door first so that if any customers were to come in while he was mopping that they wouldn’t slip over. Just as he was about to finish up a fairly plump woman walked in, walked over to the romance section and headed over to the till. The fact that Armin was still busy with dusting meant that Levi had to serve her.

“Just these please,” She spat as she hurriedly placed three books on the, now lemon scented, counter.

By the looks of things this woman had a thing for erotic romance novels as they all seemed to be various copies of 50 Shades of Grey. Levi couldn’t help but snort slightly, he couldn’t write better porn in his sleep.

“-and why do that during work hours you could have ruined my shoes!”

Levi was too caught up in his own thoughts that she completely forgot the woman was standing there.

“That’ll be £23, and I wasn’t listening what were you saying?”

The plump woman huffed loudly before handing over the money and looking down at Levi.

“I said, you should order your books better and don’t clean during work hours as that bloody soapy water could have ruined by designer shoes if I wasn’t careful,” She snapped loudly her face going a wonderful shade of red.

Surprisingly, this wasn’t the first time a customer had complained about his habit of cleaning during working hours.

“Would you rather have a bookshop that smells like someone took a dump in the corner or have one with a slightly damp soapy floor?” Levi talked back with a slight smirk on his face as the woman snatched up the books and receipt, leaving in a huff.

Compared to other customers he had served or witnessed she was relatively calm. Many people think that bookshops are quiet calm places but that’s usually true but no matter where you go you’re still going to get some customer who is difficult.

After the woman had left Levi never really got the chance to start cleaning again as it had already reached one and people on their lunch break began flowing in. It even got so crowded at one point that Armin had to cease his dusting to come and help serve people. None of the many customers stood out until this one customer came in.

“Hey Armin!” He called out as he walked through the door.

“Eren!” Armin exclaimed as the tall brunette came in. “What are you doing here?”

Eren? It couldn’t possibly be the same Eren from yesterday, could it? Not like it was any concern for Levi though. Levi decided it would be best to now interfere and just stayed at the counter with his nose in one of the books he’d picked up from the shelf.

“Ah, just on lunch break and I decided to chill with you considering the only other person I could hang around with is your horse faced boyfriend.”

Levi didn’t even need to look up in order to tell that the blond’s face had lit up like a Christmas light.

“He doesn’t have a horse face, a-also he’s not my boyfriend.” Stuttered Armin.

Raising an eyebrow Eren moved closer to Armin’s face, causing him to redden even more.

“I don’t understand why you two can’t get along. You both have a lot of things in common and you would realise that if you actually talked instead of trying to tear each other limb from limb.” 

“As if I’m anything like that douche,” Eren scoffed.

Armin quickly placed the few books he was organising in the correct places on the shelf before calling over to Levi.

“Levi I’m going to take my lunch break now, you’ll be okay right?”

Without lifting his head, Levi gave a hum of agreement. Actually it might be a good idea to take a lunch break soon, considering he hadn’t eaten since this time yesterday. After a bit of thought Levi decided that he would not bother eating until he got off at four and went shopping because then he would be able to have a nice big dinner. That is if he didn’t burn it.

By the time the end of his shift came along Levi was famished. He said a quick goodbye to Armin and Petra. He was thankful that his bus was early and therefore got to the supermarket quicker than usual. Recently he had been saving up for a car of his own, no matter how small or old it was. He couldn’t stand how dirty and unhygienic public transport. Plus you always had that one shitty little brat that stuck their hands in their mouth or up their nose and wiped it everywhere. Children were disgusting. He would never be a father because of that fact. If he was forced into having to look after a child he would probably make sure that they were above 10 or something so they weren’t completely brain dead and had some kind of idea of personal hygiene and rules.

When Levi eventually returned home it was dark. Someway along the line it had started raining, Levi wasn’t too sure when that had actually started. Either way now it was pouring with rain and there was even the odd rumble of thunder getting closer.

“I’m so fucking glad they don’t use paper bags,” Groaned Levi as he placed the plastic bags full of shopping on the kitchenette counter.

He only went in there with the intent of buying just food and a few necessities, but it ended up with him treating himself to some nice wine, cleaning products and notepads too. What didn’t need to be refrigerated or frozen Levi placed swiftly in various cupboards. He had a cupboard for boxes, another for tins, another jars and another for bottles.

Another loud gurgle from his stomach yet again notified him that he still hadn’t eaten. Grabbing a few eggs, some cheese, some mushrooms and half an onion, he made himself an omelette. It wasn’t five star restaurant worthy, but it was still edible and therefore was good enough.

There was a bright flash of light and deafening rumble of thunder and Levi and his entire apartment block was plunged into complete darkness.

“Oh for fuck’s sake!”                                         

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't even know i'm sorry


	3. A French man and bread. Les Mis or Levi

“Levi what on Earth happened to you?” Petra inquired; reaching up to the dark bruise that took up a large majority of Levi’s left cheek.

Flinching away from Petra’s hand Levi sighed “I walked into something,”

“It looks like you ran into something instead, are you okay? You haven’t got a concussion or anything do you?” As much as Levi loved Petra’s company, he had enjoyed her company ever since they were children; whenever she got like this she was fairly annoying.

“Fucking hell Petra, I’m fine. Now, I have a job to do and I’m certain that you do too.”

Defeated, Petra walked back into her office.

What he had told Petra was technically true although he didn’t tell her everything. What really happened was that after the power went out, Levi decided to head to bed. That part was fine. But during one of his dreams he was running, whether he was being chased or he was chasing someone he wasn’t too sure, and that much have transferred into the real world as he was awoken by having his cheek squashed up into the bedroom door. He was convinced that he had heard his neighbours banging on the wall in anger, but it was early so Levi couldn’t be too sure.

Levi let out a groan. Today was going to be a long day; it was the day where he was the only one working at the till. Armin had classes or something like that.

-

“Oh I never knew you worked here,” A familiar voice spoke up after the ringing over the bell above the door quietened.

Looking up, Levi’s grey eyes fell upon the same tall male that had come into the shop yesterday. Eren was it? That’s what Armin kept calling him anyway.

“Got bored of glaring at cosplayers yet, or is that just a weekend hobby?”

What was he going on about? Oh. It suddenly dawned on Levi. He must have been the titan cosplayer, Levi was sure that that was a made up word, that had confronted him at the convention.

“Oh boo hoo. Did your little feelings get hurt? Tough luck brat. I wasn’t glaring at you all contrary to popular belief, that just so happens to be the expression that’s graced my face since birth.”

Levi waited for a second to see if Eren was going to make an effort to make a reply. Judging from the embarrassed and slightly shocked look on his face he wasn’t going to say anything.

“Look kid, are you going to buy something because we are in fact extremely busy right now,” As if to emphasise his point, his very sarcastic point, he gestures around to the empty store.

“Yeah yeah,” Eren said with a laugh “I’m getting something.”

Walking over towards the fiction section Eren stood, looking at all of the books. From behind the counter, Levi watches as Eren scanned each title of every book. It was clear he had a set title in mind. However Levi wasn’t really expecting the male to return with the newest addition to the Attack On Titan series.

“Strange, didn’t know we had the new one in stock already.” Levi said, thinking a loud as he rung up the total.

“Have you read the series?” Asked Eren out of pure curiosity.

“Yes I have, although it could have been better written.”

And that was Levi’s honest opinion of his work. Even though he thought his work to be of a better standard than other authors, he still seemed to think it was bad enough to continuously criticise.

After folding his arms, Eren lent on the table. Resting his weight on its clean surface.

“Hey judging from the fact you work here you must know what you’ve got in stock right?” Eren didn’t even bother waiting for a reply from the older man “Had he written anything else?”

“I’m assuming you mean Rivaille. Other than his current series, no he hasn’t.”

This kid really did like his books then. Levi couldn’t help but wonder how the attractive young man would react if he revealed that he was actually the author he was speaking so highly of. He did not just think of Eren as attractive. Those big puppy dog eyes and killer smile were not attractive at all. No not in the slightest…

“Uhm Levi?” Eren’s voice snapped Levi back from the mess of Levi’s thoughts.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you knew how many more books there were left in the series. But you probably wouldn’t,”

“I think I heard that there’s only one more book planned for it,” Replied Levi.

He didn’t think it was true, he knew it was true. But Eren didn’t need to know for definite.

The look on Eren’s face however could only be described as one of pure distraught.

“What? No! God, it’s like Harry Potter all over again.”

“Well there is word of a sequel,” Added in Levi in a hushed tone as if saying a secret.

Why he was telling this to a complete stranger was beyond him. He hadn’t even told Erwin that he was considering creating a sequel yet.

Immediately Eren lit up again like an excitable puppy. However there was a bit of confusion written on his face.

“How do you know all this? I thought you didn’t like the books that much.”

“My friend knows him. I’ve never personally met the guy but my friend talks about him a lot.”

Yeah. That was a suitable and believable lie.

While the two were talking Levi had failed to notice the large queue that had begun to form behind Eren.

“Excuse me but could you quit flirting and do your job?!” A middle aged man snapped at Levi.

Eren, whose face was currently a shocking shade of scarlet, pointed towards the chair in the corner of the shop.

“I’ll just go and sit over there,”

Huffing, the middle ages man slammed his pile of books onto the counter, where Eren had previously been resting.

“I have a good mind to complain to your manager. I’m late for a meeting now.”

“I’d like to see you try,” muttered Levi under his breath, luckily the customer didn’t hear him.

Time must have slipped away from him as when he glanced at the clock in between serving customers it was already around noon.

_That explains why there are so many customers._

“Why don’t you open the other till?” an elderly woman towards the back asked.

Opening another till would speed up the process but alas there was no one actually there to work that till. Besides Petra probably wouldn’t like to be disturbs from her fun paperwork.

“As much as I would love to do that, there aren’t any other members of staff available at the moment.”

Three more customers in and he didn’t seem to have made a dent into the massive queue. Fucking Armin taking the fucking day off. If Armin was actually in today everything would have been fine but no, he had to go and get an education. Levi was pretty much ready to go home and collapse on his sofa; unfortunately he still had a few more hours left of working.

Eventually the queue started to die down and the flow of people coming in eventually slowed down to one every now and again.

-

“Hey brat, you planning on staying there all day?” Levi asked from the counter over towards Eren, who was sitting in the chair reading.

He got no reply.

“Hello?”

Still no reply.  Eren was apparently so immersed into the book that he was completely unaware of his surroundings.

Having nothing better to do Levi lent on the desk watching Eren read. It was actually quite a fun thing to do. Levi was actually able to tell what part of the book he was at just by the expressions Eren plastered on his face.  He really was an open book wasn’t he? Levi never even showed that much emotion in a year that Eren was showing right now.

How old was he anyway? He looked really young, he probably wasn’t any older than 18. Thinking about Eren’s age made Levi go back to his earlier train of thoughts.

_Good going Levi you thought a possible minor was attractive._

No, He couldn’t be a minor. It was during the week and he’d have school if that was the case. Unless he was ditching, that would explain why he continued to stay in the shop. Although who in their right mind would ditch school for reading? Okay, Levi wasn’t really one to talk as when he was at school he did that fairly often. Either way, this kid was probably was on some kind of sport team because even with a long sleeve t-shirt on Levi could tell he had some muscle on him.

_Stop. Bad Levi._

“Hey brat!” Levi shouted to Eren.

This time it jolted Eren back to reality.

“Shouldn’t you be at school? How old are you?”

Eren squinted slightly; he wasn’t too sure what bought on the question.

“No, and I’m 22. Why?”

_So he isn’t a minor. Well that makes me feel slightly better then._

“Eh? No reason. Just making sure you weren’t ditching school, I’m not going to get into trouble with a headmaster for hiding a pupil or whatever.”

Using his finger as a place mark, Eren closed the book.

“I don’t know if you could get in trouble for that, if anything it’d probably be me that’d get in trouble more. How old are you then?”

“29.” Levi stated bluntly “If you’re not ditching school why are you here? I mean I’m not really complaining, without you here I’d be by myself all day thanks to He-Man taking the day off.”

Eren let out a chuckle “Yeah Armin does have a bit of a bad haircut doesn’t he? I’m only really here because it’s better than reading at home, it’s quieter.”

“We’ll if it’s easier to read here you may want to get back to reading, unfortunately for you we close up in a little over an hour.”

With a small nod and a quick smile Eren reopened his book and continued reading.

While Eren was reading, there wasn’t much for Levi to do. Moving over to one of the bookshelves, the dark haired man picked up a random book and went back to the till to read it. He wasn’t going to buy it, he’d just put it back later. No one could really tell him off for it considering he was the only staff in the shop at the time and even if Petra came in she couldn’t criticize him either because she did it herself too. So long as you didn’t leave creases in the pages or the cover no one was really too bothered whether you read it in the shop.

The hour seemed to pass fairly quickly and the end of Levi’s shift was announced by an alarm on his phone going off.

Closing the pristine book, Levi put it carefully back into the shelf, exactly where he found it. No one would ever know.

“Hey Kid, we’ve got to leave. Petra will close up but technically we’re not allowed to be here from his point onwards.” He announced giving a tap on Eren’s shoulder to grab his attention.

“Heh? Already? Damn,”

Eren closed his book and got up. Standing but him Levi finally noticed how tall Eren actually was. He towered over Levi by at least a whole foot.

“Wow you’re really short,” The brunette had to flick his eyes over Levi’s name tag to remind himself of his name. “Levi.”

Not saying a word, Levi opened the door and motioned to it.

“Leave you damn brat.”

Giving a laugh Eren passed through the door and gave a small wave as he walked down the street.

_Fucking weird kid._

However as Levi stood waiting for the bus to take him to the supermarket again (it seemed last time he forgot to buy bread) he kept thinking about how much he wished that Eren would return back to the shop soon. Sighing, Levi shook his head softly; he wasn’t going to think about that kind of thing now. He’d only met the guy; he wasn’t going to develop a crush on him yet. Or that’s what he kept telling himself.

-

Just like always the supermarket was jam packet full of people, most of them adults making their way home from work and the rest were their unlucky children that had been picked up from school and were now forced to join their parents in the weekly shop.

It was horrible trying to shop like this. There were too many people, he often got shoved around in the crowd and laughed at by the yobs from local school when he tried to reach for something on the top shelf. Those bastards. His height and young looking face one caused an elderly woman, probably with bad eyesight, to ask him where his parents were and why they let such a young boy out by himself.

“Levi? Levi!”

_Oh god. It’s her._

Acting like he didn’t hear her the first time Levi continued walking.  After hearing the woman call out again Levi turned a sharp left and headed down the bread isle.

“Levi!”

Hanji had quickly caught up (Levi put it down to her height) and wrapped her arms tightly around the now fuming man.

“I missed you,” She said rubbing her chin on the top of his head.

They were causing quite the scene; a few people had even muttered things along the lines of ‘what an adorable couple’.

“Get of shitty glasses, I fucking swear to God.”

However after hearing this, Hanji only hugged tighter. Grabbing either side of him, Hanji span him around until he was looking up at her.

“Something’s happened to you recently, something good. Usually you’d have killed me by now. What’s cooking good looking?”

Levi attempted to glare at her but he couldn’t even muster up enough to do so. This fucking woman knew Levi better than Levi knew Levi. He didn’t even realise that he was in a fairly good mood until just a second ago.

“Nothing’s happened Hanji-“

“Lair! You’re a big fat lair Levi Duval. Something happened today and you’re going to tell me what.”

Deciding that ignoring Hanji was his best chance of survival, Levi reached up grabbing the loaf of bread he originally came in to buy. Hanji adjusted her glasses, she was in focus mode.

“Did you make someone cry?” She guessed.  
“Did you get a raise?”

She kept throwing out her guesses, none of them causing a reaction from Levi, who was walking towards the check out.

“Did a celebrity come into the bookstore today? Did you meet a cute guy-“

A loud gasp erupted from the brunette.

“I saw that little flick of emotion. You did, didn’t you?”

“Oh shut up shitty glasses. I’ve seen him twice and that’s it, it hardly counts as anything.”

A huge shit eating smile spread on Hanji’s face as she looked down at her small friend.  If Levi wasn’t Levi, Hanji might have bought up the fact that the man has a very, very slightly blush on his pale face. But then again it was only slight, so it could be the lighting.

“Hanji don’t you need to get back to Mike?” Levi asked really annoyed now and just wanted to pay for his bread and leave.

“Yeah, I’ll go. But I’ll leave you with this, if you steal that bread it’d be like the start of les mis.”

“Oh fuck off Hanji, fuck you right to hell!” yelled Levi, not caring about the angered looks he got from parents as they protectively covered their confused child’s ears.

Happy with her success in pissing Levi off, Hanji left. It was only then that Levi noticed she didn’t even have any shopping with her. She must have seen him outside and followed him in. That was typical Hanji. How Mike puts up with her, Levi will never know.

Luckily for Levi, getting held up by the crazy brunette let the crowds on the bus die down a bit. This meant that the man was able to sit buy himself for once instead of being crushed half to death by some sweaty old man.

Once he was finally in his apartment, he removed his shoes and placed the bread in the kitchen.

“Ugh I’ll eat in the morning,” grumbled the man as he headed off to bed.

After a long day Levi’s crisp white sheets and soft pillows were welcoming. He didn’t want to move.

He especially didn’t want to move after he remembered that Erwin expected the first few pages of the final book by next week.

“Fuck it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh i'm really sorry it's a bit rushed towards the end i really wanted to get this finished and posted before the wifi shut off again
> 
> i'm sure it's got a load of mistakes in it so i'll check it again in the morning


	4. Cats have barbs on their dicks

A whole week passed before Eren returned back to the bookshop. During that week nothing eventful happened besides Erwin complaining to Levi about deadlines. Jesus Christ was that man impatient, the new part of his series only just came out and the blond was already nagging Levi to get new material to him.

“Hey Levi,” Eren greeted with a large dopey smile as he waltzed into the small shop.

Grunting Levi refused to lift his head from his arms that formed a hard pillow on the counter. This young couple had moved into the shitty apartment above him. It also seemed that said young couple we’re very in love as they seemed to be fucking each other every minute of the day. Levi was fairly sure the two walked around their apartment completely naked because of it probably being an inconvenience to their very active love life. Because of their constant and not very discreet fucking, Levi had managed to get even less sleep than usual.

However it wasn’t the sound of the brown haired man’s voice that caused Levi to look up, it was the sound of something being placed on the counter next to his head.

“hmm?” He hummed as he lifted his head, looking at the tall starbucks cup.

“It’s coffee. It was originally for Armin but he doesn’t seem to be here yet so I’d figure I’d give it to you, no use letting it get cold. Besides you seem like you really need it.”

Levi raised a thin eyebrow at Eren, thinking over whether he should accept the coffee or not. After finding not a hint of anything negative towards him on Eren’s cheery face, he picked up the cup with a faint hum that was his way of saying thanks.

Taking a sip of the scorching liquid Levi nearly spat it back out. It was so incredibly sweet that the author feared all of his teeth would have rotted by the time he finished it all. But caffeine was caffeine and to be honest he wasn’t too sure if he would last the day if he didn’t drink it.

“What bring you here then?” questioned Levi as he leant his elbows on the hard wooden counter, coffee cup tightly in his grip.

“Ah I was looking for a book,”

If it wasn’t for the ever so faint blush that graces Eren’s tanned skin, Levi would have believed him. Why was this brat blushing? Then it fell on him, he probably had something for He-Man Arlet. Actually, that made perfect sense considering whenever he was here it was usually for Armin. Also he did say that the coffee Levi was now drinking was originally for the blond. But Armin wasn’t working today, he’d called in sick. Surely Eren must have known that being his best friend and all, or that’s what Armin insisted they were. Now it made far from perfect sense and the dark haired man was once again involving himself in other people’s business.

After taking another sip of his, once apparently Armin’s, coffee Levi spoke up to question him again.

“What kind of books did you have in mind?”

Eren shook his head, while doing so his fluffy mane whipped around his head.

“I honestly don’t know. Anything you can recommend?”

With a mouth full of coffee, Levi shrugged.

“Depends on what you like kid. Eh, I’ll just give you what seems to be the most popular at the moment.”

Placing the coffee cup down on the counter, Levi moved over to various shelves all over the shop gathering books and calling out their titles as he went along.

“Okay so you’ve got the Game of Thrones series, very good but very violent to be honest. Then there’s the Harry Potter series, they’re always good. Can’t go wrong with Harry Potter. Hmm. Ah ha right you’ve got The Fault In Our Stars although I don’t suggest it unless you want to be blubbering like a baby.”

He managed to pick up a few more books adding them to the tower in his hands. Amazingly he was still able to see over the pile.

“Stephen King books are always pretty great. Personally I really like Under The Dome and The Long Walk. And then there’s Twilight which is okay if you’re into that kind of stuff I suppose.”

After moving his cup to the far side of the counter, Levi placed down the tower of novels and put each one so that their blurb was up and facing Eren. While Levi was doing this Eren looked quite honestly shocked. He wasn’t expecting the man to go this far to help him, he just really expected Levi to say ‘look around and find something’ or something along those lines.

Each book looked really good and Eren honestly wanted to read all of them, well apart from Twilight because sparking vampires weren’t really his thing. However Eren couldn’t read them all mainly due to the fact he couldn’t afford them all. Just one book cost from £7-£9 and getting just four of them would be over his budget.

Eventually after much blurb reading and consideration, Eren decided to buy the first of the Game of Thrones series along with The Long Walk and The Fault In Our Stars. What could he say; he was a sucker so books with a lot of blood and sadness in them. And those three pretty much fitted the criteria to a T.

“That’ll be £18.99,” Levi said as he scanned the barcodes of each book.

Once he had gathered up his purchases, Eren moved swiftly to the chair in the corner and sat down to begin reading.

Levi couldn’t help but chuckle slightly under his breathe. Who would want to stay in here to read, wasn’t that what libraries and parks were for? To read in? Feeling the fatigue returning, Levi quickly drank up the rest of the coffee, thankful for it still being warm. Cold coffee was just gross. He liked his coffee how he liked his men, scorching hot like the fires of hell itself. Although that’s just what he told people, of course he liked hot coffee but he wasn’t vain enough to just date hot people. They needed to have some kind of brain that worked, if they just happened to be attractive, well that was a plus.

When lunch approached the shop was still empty and Eren was still sitting in the corner, absorbed by The Long Walk. Levi remembered reading the book, he distinctly remembered really disliking Collie Parker and to be honest, he was never too sure why. He was also particularly fond of Barkovitch but maybe that was just him, when Erwin had read the book he said he hated Gary Barkovitch.

“Levi you really should take a break,” Petra told him as he talked up to the counter “You haven’t taken a lunch break in over three weeks.”

The dark haired man shrugged.

“Petra I’m fine, I don’t need a lunch break.”

Petra wasn’t the kind of woman to put up with stubborn people, so she instantly began giving him a disapproving look.

“No Levi I’m your boss, you’re going to have a lunch break. I can run the place for an hour so leave it to me.”

As Petra disappeared back into her office, Levi grunted and moved away from the counter and towards Eren. If he was going to take a break, Eren was going to take one too. Reaching down, Levi took the book from Eren’s hands, ignoring his shouts of protests.

“I’m going on a break, you should come with me. It’s not good to be cooped up in this stuffy building all day.”

“Where are we going then?”

Silent, Levi considered the places they could go. It was eventually decided that they go to the small café down the road. Lucky for them, it wasn’t too far so they could walk.

Once they arrived they walked up to the till and Levi ordered an Egg Cress sandwich and a black coffee while Eren just bought an apple, saying he had eaten earlier.

Sitting down at a small table by the window, Levi pulled out his phone and placed it on the table. The café didn’t have a clock so he was relying on his phone for the time; he didn’t need to turn up late and get fired did he?

“So…” Eren started as he rolled the apple around in his hands.

“So?”

“Uhm, t-tell me about yourself,”

Was this kid stuttering? Levi knew he could sometimes be intimidating but Him and Eren had talked before, why was he getting shy all of a sudden. Stupid brat being a stupid brat.

“29, male, works at a book store.” The dark haired man responded taking a sip of his coffee.

Eren rolled his eyes at the response.

“Oh ha ha.” He drawled sarcastically “Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Cats have spines on their penises.”

“Really? Wait no. I meant tell me something I didn’t know about you.” Eren said before biting down hard on his apple in frustration.

Why this guy was taking an interest in Levi was beyond him. Seriously though, it wasn’t that Levi wasn’t enjoying such attention from a ravishing young man but he couldn’t help but be confused. Oh well, there’s nothing wrong with going along with it all.

“Well, I grew up in France but moved over here when I was young after my parents died. I like reading, especially horror although I don’t protest to a romance-y book every now and again. I don’t like children because they’re noisy and dirty, the same goes for public transport.”

He allowed himself a pause to have some of his sandwich and for the information to settle in Eren’s brain.

“Does that satisfy you?”

“I’m so sorry, about your parents I mean,”

Levi shrugged “Don’t be, it’s not your fault. Anyway are you not going to tell me anything about yourself? You did just make me talk so it’s only fair.”

The author wasn’t going to lie; he honestly did want to know a bit more about Eren. Considering he has hung around the shop and Levi more than once, plus he was also Levi’s biggest fan when it came to his books.

“Well uhm I live with my adopted sister, my mother died when I was younger and my dad just kinds of drifts about. Mikasa and Armin are pretty much my best friends. I also really like reading, the Attack On Titan series is one of my favourites as you’ve probably guessed by now. I can’t stand Armin’s horse faced boyfriend Jean because he’s obnoxious and a dick.”

Stifling a snort as he listened to Eren’s dislike of Jean, Levi smirked.

“By the sounds of things you seem pretty jealous of Jean if I didn’t know any better.”

Loud choking erupted from the brunette as Levi stated that thought.

“God no, I just hate Jean. Besides Armin’s my cousin.”

They were cousins? Not in a million years would Levi ever have come to that conclusion. Well now he just felt stupid. He’d made quite the ass of himself. Levi could walk this off though, no big deal.

“Well it is legal to marry your second cousin; I don’t know what you like. You could be into that kind of stuff.”

Letting out a chuckle Eren shook his head. Good God did he have a lovely laugh. It was the kind of laugh that was so smooth it would make anyone weak at the knees. Or so Levi though.

“You’re really weird, has anyone told you that?”

“I’m weird? Hasn’t anyone ever told _you_ that brat? Keeping in mind that the first time I met you, you were mostly naked and covered head to toe in body paint in a public area.”

“Touché.” Scoffed Eren with another large dopey grin.

Was this guy trying to kill Levi? Because that’s what he seemed to be doing.

Just as Levi was about to check the time, an alarm went off on his phone alerting him that he needed to return to work.

“Crap, back to work now.” Groaned Levi. “You coming back to the store brat or are you going to go and find some of your own friends to pester?”

“Yeah I should probably head back. I’ll see you again though.”

Gathering up the bag with all his new books in, Eren waved a quick goodbye before heading out of the café and down the street.

The rest of Levi’s shift was spent day-dreaming. Half about his plans for his novel, the rest were thoughts about Eren.

What was so special about this kid?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's fairly late here and i really wanted to get this chapter up so i didn't really check through it as thoroughly, although i will do so tomorrow.
> 
> I track the tags 'fic: anonymous authors and their fans' and 'aaatf'. So of there is anything related to my fic that you wish to post whether it be art, complaints or suggestions, if you tag it using any of those i'll see it uwu
> 
> thank you for taking the time to read this all!!


	5. Uh oh Eren got fired

Wednesday’s in Levi’s opinion were shitty. Other than the days Armin didn’t come into work, Levi’s least favourite day was Wednesday. And his reason for it being his least favourite day of the week was simple; it was for whatever reason the busiest. The dark haired man couldn’t comprehend why it was their busiest day because it’s not like it was a day that magically everyone’s books vanished so they needed to buy new ones. Unless there was something about Wednesdays that Levi was missing.

“Levi can you help me put these books on the shelves please?” Armin asked quietly as he walked in from Petra’s office with a large handful of books.

Snapped out of his Wednesday hatred festival, Levi shrugged and moved over to Armin and took half of the tower.

“Eren don’t shut up about you, you know.” stated Armin.

Moving around the shop the two men made sure to put the books in the correct places; in the correct genre category and then in the correct place alphabetically from the authors surname. There was the odd book that had been moved by customers so they quickly fixed those too as they were spotted.

“I’m gone for a day and you’re already rushing my best friend away,” He then added with a chuckle.

Levi rolled his eyes as he placed a new copy of _The Perks Of Being A Wallflower_ onto the already bursting shelf.

“I didn’t do anything; I merely took him to the café down the road to get him out of the shop for a while. Besides I couldn’t leave him by himself in the shop, he’s so unaware of his surroundings when he’s reading. The zombie apocalypse could have started and he wouldn’t give two shits because he still had a chapter to go.”

An audible scoff escaped the blond’s lips. As much as he loved Eren, him being his best friend and all, what Levi said was completely true and always has been. He remembered times when they were younger that Eren would decide to walk while reading and would get so immersed into a book that he’d end up nearly getting his by a car, if it wasn’t for Armin or Mikasa being there to rescue his sorry ass. It always amused him that Eren was a bookworm. Everyone always judged that Armin would be the book worm just from the fact he was quiet and smart, but in reality it was Eren, the same Eren who spends him time playing sports and video games (when he wasn’t reading that is).

“You do have a point there, but I didn’t ever think it would get that bad though. I don’t think anyone could ignore an apocalypse.”

Before Levi had the chance to form a sensible reply a certain tall brunette walked through the bookstore door causing the little bell above it to ring out in an irritating cry.

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Muttered Levi as he speedily placed the remainder of their books in their set spaces.

“Huh?” was all Eren said as he walked through the door. He only caught the end of Levi’s sentence and being the noisy bastard he is, he was curious as to what they were talking about.

Allowing a bright smile to cross his lips, Armin turned to face his friend. He contemplated for a moment whether he should hug Eren or not, he eventually decided against doing so. Besides, he still held a pile of books in his hands, a pile of books that should have all been placed in their correct places by now.

“Oh nothing, don’t worry about it Eren,” The blond told him.

Eren gave a small shrug before heading over to the chair in the corner of the shop that he had grown oh so fond to over the last few weeks. To be totally honest, Levi was fairly sure that there was now an imprint of Eren’s backside on the cushion because of how much time he spent sitting there and reading. The same dark haired male was about to say something when he noticed a flash of concern rush across his co-worker’s face.

“Hang on, Eren, why aren’t you at work?”

Almost immediately Eren’s face wrinkled into a scowl.

“I got fired,” He began to explain “I broke some of the shop’s stuff and yeah.”

That was just the shorter version he created to tell people like Mikasa and Armin, people that would ask. What really happened was much more, well, violent.

_The shop bell rang out a soft chime as it announced the entrance of Eren’s co-worker, Jean. Because Armin liked Jean a lot, Eren tried extremely hard to put up with the man who for whatever reason never fails to get on every single one of the brunette’s nerves._

_“Sup shouty,” Jean greeted with a faint hiss, almost trying to get something out of Eren._

_“Piss off horse face; I’m not taking your shit this early in the morning.”_

_Groaning Eren put his head in his hands and rubbed soothingly at his temples, attempting to rid himself of the headache already forming._

_“Geez who peed in your cereal?”_

_Another groan took the form of Eren’s reply. It seemed that wasn’t something that was going to suffice._

_“Oh wait I bet your mum still makes breakfast for you,”_

_That was it. Even though the two never got along, they wouldn’t even class themselves as friends, they still both knew they had topics that they shouldn’t bring up. For Jean it was Marco, his ex-boyfriend and best friend who died in a house fire a few years ago, while for Eren it was his mother, who had also died a couple of years ago although in a car crash. It didn’t take long for Jean to realise what he had said._

_“Oh shit dude I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”_

_For anyone else that apology would have been good enough and they would have carried out on their merry little ways, but by this point Eren was already red and burning with anger._

_“You fucking knew you weren’t supposed to bring her up you asswipe.”_

_“Look I’m so-“_

_“I don’t even care anymore I’m so sick of you saying shit like that, you’re a fucking douche Jean I don’t even fucking know what Armin sees in you because all I see is a huge shit.”_

_With that said he shoved Jean back, causing him to fall on top of a shelf full off china keyrings. Looking back on the situation Eren realised he probably shouldn’t have mentioned Armin’s feelings towards Jean as it wasn’t his right to tell, but while he is in a rage thinking is always at the back of Eren’s mind. He wasn’t snapped out of his angry rampage until his boss, who had heard the ruckus and came to check up on them, started yelling at him for breaking merchandise and injuring staff. It was shortly after that that the man had told him that he was fired and to just head home._

_The brunette didn’t really want to spend the day just lounging around the house, as nice as that might seem, so he walked back to his house to change from his uniform. After changing into some more comfortable clothes, he then headed back into town to spend his time with his friend and his grumpy yet attractive and intriguing co-worker._

_“_ You should have been more careful brat,” Levi snapped after hearing Eren’s reason.

Eren looked down at his feet and muttered something quietly under his breath. Letting out a sigh Eren raised his head and cast his eyes to Armin.

“I honestly don’t understand what you see in Jean, he’s just a big fat bag of dicks.”

Avoiding the question, Armin chuckled softly while shaking his head.

The rest of the working day was fairly boring, like most working days. Like Levi had predicted the day had been extremely busy and at some points the pair even had to persuade Eren to help out because it was getting too crowded, not having any choice in the matter he agreed. Actually Eren was fairly good at that kind of work. If it wasn’t for the fact the shop didn’t really have any jobs going he would have recommended him to Petra. As soon as Armin’s shift was over, the blond hurried away, murmuring something about… a date? Ever the pesterer, Eren stayed behind until Levi’s shift was over.

“You waiting for something Jaeger?” Levi finally asked.

Giving a shrug Eren cleared his throat.

“I was just, uh, wondering if you wanted to head to the coffee shop down the street again,”

Levi couldn’t really comprehend why the tall brunette in front of him was working himself up so much. It’s not like he was asking Levi out on a date. Unless he was. But Levi didn’t think that was very likely. He couldn’t really go though, he had to send Erwin the first new chapter of the next book by next month and he hadn’t even started it yet. Now how was he going to turn Eren down without sounding blatantly rude.

“Yeah, sure.”  

Shit.

\--

In the café they managed to seat themselves at the same table as last time. While it being so late, it was still fairly empty, a fact that made Levi feel slightly more comfortable. Being in crowded areas wasn’t something he particularly liked, not because he was shy, but more because of the fact he just strongly disliked a lot of people.

Returning from the counter, Eren held in his hands two drinks, a bottle of Pepsi for himself and some Lipton lemon ice tea for his short companion.

“Why did you start working at the bookshop?” questioned Eren as he twisted the cap off of the bottle of the carbonated sugary liquid.

“I like books and I needed money, it’s honestly just that simple. Well if we’re suddenly playing 20 questions, can I ask why you really got fired.” The way Levi spoke the last sentence almost made it come across as more of a statement than a question. It wouldn’t really surprise Eren if it wasn’t a question, Levi didn’t seem the kind of person to just leave if he didn’t get what he wanted.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Eren said gulping down his Pepsi, attempting to move on from the topic.

“I’m not an idiot. I know when someone is lying, and back in the shop you were definitely lying.”

Running his hand through his hair Eren began to explain everything that had happened that morning, everything from Jean walking in to work to Eren getting shouted at to leave. While he was explaining everything Levi just sat quietly, sipping at his ice tea, and giving the odd silent nod when it was necessary. Once Eren had finished he gave a deep sigh and waited for Levi to say something.

“I really don’t think you should have pushed him but it was a bit of a dick move on his behalf.” was all that Levi said on the matter.

Even though the author had no exact knowledge of what happened to Eren’s mother he knew from the story that it obviously wasn’t good and had made quite the impression on Eren. He knew from his own experiences that losing a loved one was hard and you can’t just be expected to get over it, but sometimes you have to be the better man and ignore the odd comments like what Jean apparently said. And by the sounds of things Jean had tried to apologise which didn’t really work in Eren’s favour if he ever did want to get his job back or anything like that. But you can’t really blame Eren, anger did often cloud people’s judgement, but that still doesn’t make what he did right, although Eren probably already knew that.

They had hovered around this topic for too long and it was obviously making Eren uncomfortable so he decided to move onto a topic that he knew Eren would be happy to talk about.

“So what do you think of the new Attack On Titan book so far? I know how much you’re into that series and stuff.”

The dark expression that was clouding the brunette’s face lifted in an instant and was replaced by one of passion and excitement.

“Oh god it’s really really great, I’ve finished it already, but..”

“But?”

Buts were never good, they always meant something bad, but in writing these negative ‘buts’ could be used to improve work so Levi was always going to listen to them.

“I can’t help but feel like Rivaille is rushing it, like they really want to get it finished. I still love the books don’t get me wrong; I just can’t help but notice that.”

Levi nodded in thought. Maybe the brat had a point? He _had_ been itching to start on the sequel although he had yet write up a proper plot, he just didn’t think that it would be that obvious in his writing. If it was that noticeable, Erwin would have said something about it. Eren must be much more interested in his books than he originally though.

“Hey, you listen to all my ramblings about the stuff I like. You should talk about things you like,” Eren said as he took another sip of Pepsi “Besides I want to get to know you…” He then added quietly, almost too quietly to hear.

“I like TV shows that involve crime and murder I guess. Bones is pretty good although it revolves too much around their personal lives rather than the actual crimes now for my liking. Never really got much into any of the CSIs, Sherlock is good too I suppose.”

“I never really pegged you for a murder tv kind of person,”

Snorting Levi looked up at him.

“You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Besides, what about me doesn’t scream ‘murder tv fanatic’? Also, you barely know me; I could be a murderer for all you know.” joked Levi with a small smile that could easily be mistaken for a smirk.

Eren shook his head, “Nah you couldn’t possibly be a murderer, you don’t have the, uhm, hmm. Well you just don’t _look_ like a murderer. You look more like a doctor. Have you ever thought about becoming a doctor? Ooh! Or a teacher?”

The two continued talking about useless things late into the night. Their topics flowed from TV into Career choices, to ice cream flavours and then to pets. If the aim of that night was to get to know each other better they certainly did that. It was actually quite nice, Levi thought, to just spend an evening just chatting to someone about every day useless things, although if he told Hanji or Erwin that he’d never hear the end of it, they both know him as Levi ‘no fun allowed’ Duval.

Levi had yet to figure it out, but there was something about Eren that made Levi feel happy. Whether it was his dopey smile, his bright eyes or his adorable laugh, Levi didn’t know. But whatever it was it was drawing Levi closer to him. The man wanted to get to know him. He wanted to know every little detail, every little quirk or flaw that his personality contained. This feeling, he’d written about it before but he refused to acknowledge that he actually felt anything towards the brat.

It was roughly 7:46pm when Eren’s phone buzzed alerting him that Mikasa was expecting him home.

“It’s been really great talking, but I should do before my sister comes searching for me. Hey, we should really do this again sometime.” Eren told him.

Humming in agreement, Levi nodded.

“Jaeger you should give me your number, then you know, if you do want to meet up again at least I have means of contacting you.”

The brunette pulled a marker and a scrap of paper from the pit he called coat pockets and speedily scribbled down his number. Handing over the slip of paper Eren said a quick goodbye and apologised for leaving so abruptly.

Returning back home to his cosy apartment, Levi was suddenly hit with a wave of inspiration for the sequel of his novel. Whatever had given him this inspiration, Levi was thankful for. Where his plot was once non-existent, he now had a few vague plot points that he just needed to string together. He had also decided on a new protagonist, a young teenage boy going by the name of Aaron.

After making himself some toast smothered with peanut butter the author moved over to grab some paper. Even though it probably would have been more efficient to write up the plan and character designs on the computer where it would be neat and you wouldn’t be able to lose it, Levi preferred doing things like this on paper as it was easier to do mind maps and edit parts. Timelines were also significantly easier to create.

He decided that it would be a good idea to continue on with the Attack On Titan universe but about 100 years after they had built up the walls to block out the titans. The walls, Levi decided, were going to be built at the end of the series and there were going to be three of them. The inner wall would be where the richer people would stay, inside wall Sina. The middle wall would be named Rose while the outer would be wall Maria. These walls would end up being extremely tall and thick, very sturdy. But the means of how they would be made were still unsure to Levi. 

The plot would follow the story of the teenage boy, Aaron and his two friends and they try to defeat the titans forever. It would be full of pain and violence like the previous series, but it would also have a load of plot twists and adventure in it too. Levi was getting even more excited to writing it all up but he only ended up disappointing himself when he realised he still had his final book of the first series. Oh god. He had totally forgotten he was supposed to start writing the first chapter or so of it.

Placing down his pen Levi sighed. From the rapid writing and planning he was doing his wrist was throbbing. All he wanted to do now was sleep, and after heading to the bedroom and peeling off his clothes, that is exactly what he did. And for the first time in months, he wasn’t awoken by nightmares. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aahhh i tried to make this slightly longer 
> 
> but i've got the next few chapters planned out and i honestly got slightly disappointed because i thought i was writing a certain chapter i had planned but when i looked at my plan and saw i have a load of chapters before that, yeah i was a bit discouraged. 
> 
> at least you know that i'm not giving up on this just yet ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is basically a short filler chapter before the main stuff happens. It's mainly short because i haven't updated in a while and i wanted you guys to know i do think about this story on a regular basis but it's just really hard to write at the moment but the holidays are coming up so hopefully i can write some more. Any mistakes are my fault and i'm too lazy and impatient to attempt to find a beta

By the time Saturday rolled around, Levi hadn’t encountered Eren since their date. Well, if you could call it a date. Although Levi could remember things like the colour of a stranger that he met on the bus’s eyes, it was the important things that he tended to forget. Putting Eren’s number onto his phone was one of these things. In fact he had thought he’d lost the piece of paper with it on for a few days, although in reality it was on the kitchen counter by the toaster.

_I’ve got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine_

Levi cringed as his alarm went off. Obviously the alarm wasn’t chosen by him, it was actually Erwin who had changed it one night after getting a bit too drunk during Levi’s birthday. As much as Levi despised the song, he never really had the heart to change it. And as much as he would hate to admit it, he also didn’t really know how to change it back. He wasn’t even sure how Erwin had changed it in the first place.

After allowing himself to stretch out and groan, Levi then proceeded to wrap himself up in his large fluffy duvet again. It wasn’t until the alarm blared out again that he peeled himself out of the covers and got up. The cold air in his apartment stabbed into him like a sharp blade. Every part of him wanted to retreat back to the warm bed but he knew he had errands to do.

Moving into the bathroom he turned on the shower. After stripping himself of his clothes he stepped in, allowing the scalding water to take away all of the sweat, dirt and grime from his body. He decided to use this short amount of time to work out a few more things concerning the plot of his sequel series.

Recently next to all of his spare time was used up in thinking about his sequel series. This was proving to be good in some ways and bad in many others, the bad way being that he still had made little effort to actually start the final volume. Part of Levi wished that he had just written it as one huge book rather than a series because then he wouldn’t have to worry about making the fans wait or anything like that. It would have also been less stressful for the raven haired man as he wouldn’t have had to worry about deadlines. Actually that’s not necessarily true as he probably would have still had Erwin breathing down his neck. God damn uptight editor and his fucking deadlines.

Erwin and him had been friends since they were toddlers so no matter how much Levi  insulted the blond, Erwin never took anything to heart. Besides if he did take everything the author said seriously the pair would have probably stopped being friends roughly a week after they met.

Once he had gotten dried and dressed Levi threw on his coat. He was off to get some coffee and meet Erwin at the cafe down the road to discuss his book, oh the fun he would be having today. The last thing he needed before he left was his keys; he already had his shoes on. Just a quick scan of the kitchenette and he found them. They were right next to the toaster, on top of a piece of paper.

“Oh fuck,”

Picking up his keys, he also picked up the paper with Eren’s number on it. He was supposed to have added this to his phone. Eren was probably waiting for Levi to text him. God dammit.

Unlocking his phone, Levi quickly added the number onto his contact list. Said contact list now had four people on it. Oh happy days.

_Should I text him now?_

Levi groaned he was acting like a love sick school girl. It was the adult thing to do though, to text him. So he reopened his phone again and composed a text.

**From Levi: To Eren:**

**This is Levi. My phone was broken so I never managed to add your number until now.**

What a fabulous liar he was. Well what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, plus he wasn’t going to embarrass himself by saying that he lost the fucking paper was he?

Running his hand through his hair he stuffed the phone and keys into his coat pockets before leaving his apartment, locking the door behind him.

\--

“Levi so glad you finally turned up,” Greeted Erwin from their usual table in the small family ran café.

“Fuck you, I’m on time and you know it.”

Levi removed his heavy coat and placed it on the back of the chair before sitting down. Immediately Erwin jumped straight into business.

“So, words floating around about a sequel series. What’s this about hmm?”

Giving a groan Levi rubbed at his temples. He didn’t remember telling anyone about it other than... Eren, god dammit. He must have told some of his book buddies or something because he was certain that the puppy-like male was the only one he told even a small bit about the sequel.

“Ugh possibly. I haven’t confirmed the entire plot but I have a rough outline of it, the same with the characters. It’s going to be pretty good though, at least I have some high hopes for it at the moment.”

He could feel Erwin’s eyes piercing into him and he flipped over the new information in his mind. This wasn’t the first time Levi had spoken about writing a new novel or novels, he had told Erwin about many different plots but none of them were ever actually acted on. However Erwin felt that there was something different in the way he spoke about this new idea. Maybe for once he would stick to his word and write something. Speaking of Levi’s writing…

“You haven’t written any of the first chapter have you? You seem to be avoiding the reason we are actually here.” The blond accused with a small smile as he took a sip of his tea. It was quite funny to see such a large, built man holding a small, fragile floral tea cup. Erwin wasn’t even that big, it was just that the tea cup was incredibly tiny.

“You know me oh so well,” Muttered Levi “The last book was only just released, do you honestly think that I can just shit this stuff out like diarrhoea?”

“You know it’s better to have good quality writing slower than fast, terrible writing. But it would be nice to at least get the plans or something to look at. Even a thousand words, no, a hundred words would be helpful.”

Feeling his phone vibrate violently in his pocket he gave an annoyed groan, considering Erwin was right in front of him, it was either Hanji or Eren. Hanji rarely texted him anymore mainly due to the fact she still is unaware that Levi changed his phone. He may have ‘forgotten’ to tell the hyperactive woman his new number. That left either some cold caller, which wasn’t very likely or Eren the human puppy.

**To Levi: From Eren:**

**OMG phew i though i skared u off or smthn**

Erwin raised an eyebrow at Levi’s visible cringe as he read over the message. The message itself was _okay,_ but the spelling was atrocious. It killed the author inside just to receive it.

**To Eren: From Levi:**

**Your spelling and grammar is enough to make me violently sick.**

When Levi placed his phone back into his pockets he was greeted to a smug grin plastered on his friend’s face.

“Have you got gas or something? You’re pulling that ‘I really need to fart but I can’t I’m in public’ face.”

“Levi your sense of humour isn’t even funny. Toilet humour won’t get people running up to date you you know.”

“Good thing I don’t want anyone else trying to date me.” Was all he replied with. However Erwin caught something in his tone of voice and what he said.

“Anyone else?”

This was a good enough time to leave. Grabbing his coat he stood up, ignoring Erwin’s protests for him leaving. The blond was saying thing about how they hadn’t finalised the sequel series yet and how they had so much more to talk about but Levi didn’t care. To be honest he was just quite bored and wanted nothing more to go home. Plus he was fairly sure that the seat he had sat it had something sticky on it and he wanted to go back home and have a long shower and wash all of his clothes twice, maybe three times to be sure. And also, when he got home he’d be able to reply to the messages Eren had been sending him without his friend’s smug face looking at him. Erwin knew Levi liked Eren, even though Erwin didn’t know Eren he somehow knew. It was all over his face.


	7. Author's Note

Author’s Note/Apology

Wow okay after two years I’ve finally realised that I never actually explained why I stopped updating. Long story short, I was going through a tough time with my mental health and I just didn’t have any motivation to do anything so this fic kind of got pushed to the side lines. By the time I was getting better I had pretty much lost all interest in SNK as well as any ships regarding it, which is a shame because I met a load of people through the fandom.

I really just wanted to say sorry for not finishing this (or my other SNK fic); in all fairness making a multichapter fic probably wasn’t the best idea considering that I rarely finish them oops.

To anyone who was actually excited when they got the email notification (I doubt there are many because two years is a long time to go without updating), I’m sorry. Unfortunately, I cannot offer you a brief explanation of what I had planned for this fic because I was sort of just making it up as I was going along, which proabably isn't the best way to go about writing fics.

Again, I’m sorry.


End file.
